Ch. 241..250

Chapter 241

"Alright, I'll start. You ready?" Old Man Lightning transmitted to Gravis.

"Go ahead," Gravis sent back.

BZZZ!

Old Man Lightning released a small amount of lightning and shot it towards Gravis. Even though he believed Gravis, he wanted to be careful. After all, he was four entire Stages higher than Gravis. The lightning hit Gravis, making him feel energized. As the lightning hit him, the Destruction Energy was absorbed by his inherent lightning while the filtered Life Lightning went towards the closest thing, which was the Freya's Birch.

The tree released a feeling of joy as it felt the pure Life Energy coursing through it. It absorbed it quickly, but that small bit of lightning was not nearly enough. It wanted more. When Gravis felt the hunger of the tree, he smirked. "No worries, more will come shortly!" he transmitted to it.

Old Man Lightning saw that Gravis was still fine, so he increased the output to multiple times higher. Gravis felt the lightning and noticed his lightning steadily growing more powerful. This bit of lightning that Old Man Lightning released was already more than those 5,000 Energy Stones had given him.

The lightning kept pouring into Gravis while the filtered Life Lightning went into the tree, which also greedily absorbed it. Yet, greed took ahold of the tree, and it extended its branch into the lightning that came from Old Man Lightning. When Gravis and Old Man Lightning saw that, they gasped in fear and shock. "NO!" they shouted.

BANG!

Old Man Lightning immediately stopped his lightning, but it was too late. The branch went into the lightning stream and immediately exploded while a lot of the lightning went through its body. In a panic,

Gravis immediately converted all his inherent Energy into Life Lightning and shot it into the tree, barely saving its life.

The tree remained scorched and black for only a short moment before it regained its vitality, yet it transmitted pain and fear into Gravis now. This was the first time where the tree felt the power of destruction on its body, and it immediately got scared. The whole tree swayed violently, and some kind of scream echoed throughout the Sect.

"Calm down! It's over! No one will hurt you!" Gravis shouted at it with his Spirit, trying to soothe it. It was just like a newborn baby and knew nothing about the world. The only thing it felt was pain and fear after this trauma.

Meanwhile, the disciples had first watched in shock as the old man shot lightning violently at Gravis. Was the old man trying to kill him? They didn't know that this was what Gravis wanted since he only talked with Old Man Lightning via his Spirit. Then, when the tree extended its branch into the lightning stream, their faces blanched. Did the tree have a death wish?

Old Man Lightning looked with a bit of fear at the tree, but after noticing that it survived, he released a sigh of relief. Killing their new treasure just after it had been created would have been horrible for the Lightning Sect. Luckily, Gravis had acted quickly enough.

It took Gravis over five minutes to finally make the tree calm down. During that time, he had to latch onto the tree to not fall off since it was violently shaking. After it finally calmed down, Gravis explained what happened.

"The lightning of other people is dangerous!" he transmitted severely. "Their lightning has Destruction and Life Energy. First, it needs to pass through my body so that I can convert it to Life Lightning. You can only eat Life Lightning, or you will get hurt again. Understood?"

The tree transmitted back that it understood. It didn't understand the full concept of Destruction and Life Energy, but it understood that it could only eat the lightning that Gravis produced. That was already enough.

After Gravis made sure that the tree understood, he told Old Man Lightning to continue. The old man continued shooting lightning at it while the tree, still afraid of the recent painful experience, pulled its branches as far away from the lightning as possible. It had no intention of feeling the sensation of pain again.

The lightning hit Gravis again, and its intensity started increasing with time. After a while, Old Man Lightning was shooting with everything he had, which made Gravis feel as alive as never before. His lightning storage was growing violently. Some stray bolts of it were already breaking through his skin.

Old Man Lightning quickly noticed what was happening to Gravis, and he grew astonished. 'So that's where he stores all his lightning,' he thought. He had already thought multiple times about how weird Gravis felt to him.

Gravis had nearly no Energy, yet had an abundance of lightning inside of him. Only now did he see the answer. Gravis was carrying his lightning in his dantian, while the Energy Old Man Lightning felt was only the inherent Energy that a body had. His interest in Gravis grew.

"Alright, I'm nearly empty," Old Man Lightning shouted, this time, not transmitting his voice. Then, he turned to the surrounding disciples. By now, there were a lot of them since something major was going on. "Now, it's your turn! Go shoot at Gravis with everything you have! You don't need to use your Spirit. Just shoot your lightning."

The disciples hesitated, but some of them were rather quick-witted and directly shot their lightning at Gravis. If Gravis was able to resist Old Man Lightning's lightning, then he was surely able to resist their lightning.

BZZZZZZZ!

Multiple streams of lightning shot at Gravis, who had no issue in absorbing all of them. "Come on! Shoot!" Old Man Lightning shouted at the still hesitating disciples. After his shout, they also joined in. The lightning of over a hundred Spirit Forming experts shot at Gravis, making him feel energized beyond belief.

The tree also started growing violently, even quicker than before. It started growing rapidly until it was over five kilometers tall, yet it didn't stop. Most of the disciples were smart enough to use their Spirits to control the trajectory of lightning, yet there were bound to be some stupid people.

BANG!

Some lightning bolts hit the branch that Gravis stood on, making Gravis panic again. Luckily, since there was a constant stream of Life Lightning going into the tree, he didn't need to heal it manually. On top of that, it seemed like the tree didn't mind that lightning too much. On top of that…

WACK WACK WACK!

Some branches of the tree immediately whipped away the three offending disciples. The disciples hadn't been ready for an attack, so they got flung into some nearby buildings. Apparently, the tree was smart enough already to see who had attacked it and retaliate. Its rapid growth was also quickly making it smarter.

"Stop!" it transmitted into its surroundings, making many of the disciples lose control over their jaws. The tree was already able to transmit simple words. That meant that it had reached the level of a Spirit Plant.

"Alright, everyone! Stop!" Old Man Lightning's imposing voice echoed throughout the Sect, making the disciples stop. The last bolts of lightning shot at Gravis and got converted. Gravis released a happy

sigh but was immediately surprised by how high up in the air he was.

'That's nearly ten kilometers high! The canopy of the tree is even penetrating the storm clouds. Wait, what about the lightning?' he thought in panic and looked around. Gravis was inside the storm clouds, so he could only watch the situation with his Spirit. Yet, what he saw, relieved him.

He saw how the lightning of the clouds moved around the tree. In the beginning, Gravis questioned how that was possible. Since the tree was connected to the ground, why would it be able to not get affected by natural lightning?

Yet, the answer came rather quickly. By now, the tree was feeling like lightning to Gravis. As Gravis noticed that, he came upon a realization. 'Of course! The tree has a very high affinity with lightning, basically making it one with it. Normal lightning has no intention of attacking it. Only when a will is behind lightning will it attack the tree.'

Gravis sighed in relief again and then jumped down. "That should be enough food for now," Gravis transmitted to the tree.

"Thank you, father," it transmitted to Gravis, making him nearly lose his balance in the air.

'Did the tree just call me father?' he thought in shock. No one had ever called him father before. Was it fine for the tree to call him that? After some thought, Gravis decided not to mind it. After all, he kind of was its creator. Calling him father wasn't entirely wrong.

Gravis fell for a while, accelerating to quite a high speed. As he saw the ground growing closer, he suddenly had a thought. 'I have no issue in getting through this fall uninjured, but what about the surrounding ground? I am kind of heavy, after all.'

"Hey, could you please help me down more gently?" Gravis transmitted to the tree mid-fall.

The tree quickly coiled a branch around him, slowing his fall. Then, it moved him down gently.

As Gravis broke through the canopy of the clouds, he realized something as he looked down. "Oh, that's why they stopped," he said involuntarily.

The tree had destroyed the ground in the surrounding 500 meters. Buildings were destroyed, and those that still stood, stood at an impossible angle, nearly vertical. The ground and the buildings in the Sect looked like someone had punched through a steel plate, while the Sect was built on the other side of the plate.

Buildings that were previously on the ground were now many meters in the air, their furniture falling through the windows and open doors. The tree was even rather close to the Lightning Tower.

The branch stopped around two meters above the ground, uncoiling itself and letting Gravis stand on it. "Thanks," he transmitted.

Gravis jumped down from the branch, landing on the floor.

BOOOOOOOM!

And everything around him exploded in a storm of violent Destruction Lightning.

 

 

Chapter 242

The surroundings exploded violently with Destruction Lightning, surprising Gravis. This was not just normal lightning, but his very own Destruction Lightning. What had happened? He also felt his lightning storage emptying to about 50%. He had involuntarily unloaded 50% of his lightning into the surroundings.

One had to know that Gravis' storage had nearly tripled. This 50% was equivalent to 150% of his previous storage. This was a lot of lightning! Luckily, the ground was made of Balzar while the tree remained unaffected. After all, this involuntary release of lightning didn't have Gravis' will behind it, making it just a stronger version of natural lightning.

Also, no disciple stood close to the tree, saving them from an untimely death. Gravis couldn't imagine what would happen if he were to kill tens of disciples by accident. Though, Gravis guessed that it wasn't his lack of Karmic Luck that achieved that, but the positive Karmic Luck of the disciples. After all, without Heaven's interference, their positive Karmic Luck still worked.

Still, the explosion raged into the surroundings, creating a shockwave that destroyed the ground and a couple of buildings. Everyone looked in shock at the explosion. Where did that come from?

After less than a second, the explosion calmed down. Gravis was still confused about what had happened. Why did his lightning suddenly go out of control?

WACK! BZZZZ!

The cane of Old Man Lightning hit Gravis again, but Gravis' lightning involuntarily attacked the cane as it came closer, traveling along the cane's surface to Old Man Lightning. The cane still hit Gravis, but not as strongly. Instead, he was more shocked about his own lightning going out of control again.

Old Man Lightning felt the lightning going into him, but since he was four Stages higher than Gravis with an equally powerful lightning resistance, he wasn't injured in the slightest. It only shocked his handnoveldrama

slightly. If it hadn't, Gravis would have been thrown away again.

Old Man Lightning looked at his hand with furrowed brows and then at Gravis' belly. "So, it's as I expected," he said, surprisingly not angry.

Gravis was still confused about the situation. "What happened? Why can't I control my lightning?"

Old Man Lightning lightly shook his hand to counteract the numb feeling. "When you absorbed lightning, I saw it going into your dantian. Yet, against all known cultivation laws, it started growing out of your dantian and even left your body. You should know what that means."

Gravis' eyes widened in realization. "Since the lightning left my body, it was no longer isolated by my body. Therefore, it struck the first thing that came near, which was the ground. That's why everything exploded!"

Old Man Lightning nodded. "Exactly. You still had some lightning leaving your body, but not enough to hit the ground. I attacked you so that it could unload itself into something that could withstand it. If you just bumped into a random person, that person would've exploded right then and there. You should know that, previously, your lightning even reached your knees."

Sweat ran down Gravis' neck. Without knowing, he had been a loaded lightning bomb, just dying to unload onto the closest person. Old Man Lightning saved him from killing another person involuntarily. "That's an issue," Gravis said.

Old Man Lightning nodded. "Yes. Stay here, and don't move. We need to test at which threshold your lightning starts going out of control." Then, Old Man Lightning moved his cane to Gravis' dantian so that it touched that spot.

Gravis looked down and then at the other people. "So, I'm just supposed to stand here? Can't we do that somewhere else?"

"Not until we know the safe threshold," Old Man Lightning said. "I don't want you to unload onto someone."

Gravis bitterly smiled, feeling kind of awkward with all the people just watching him. They all stood there, looking at him without talking. Of course, they were Spirit Forming experts, so Gravis was sure that they talked about him with their Spirits.

Minutes passed as Gravis regenerated his lightning. It only took around two hours for him to go from 0% to 100% of his lightning. The quantity of his storage didn't matter since more lightning attracted more Energy. The regeneration speed was always the same, as long as his Realm didn't increase above the Energy density of this lower world. That wouldn't happen until he reached the Unity Realm.

BZZZ!

A small bolt of lightning hit the cane. Gravis felt a lot of lightning leaving him, which made him furrow his brows. 'My lightning went out of control as soon as I regenerated around 55% of my lightning, yet it unloaded a whole 10%. I guess when it unloads, it also pulls some of the lightning inside my body with it. I should try to stay at 50% for safety's sake.'

Old Man Lightning pulled his cane back. "You got the threshold?"

Gravis nodded. "55%. I'll try to stay at 50%. I can unload the additional lightning into my Spirit. Shouldn't be an issue."

WACK!

The cane whacked Gravis on the head again. "Are you stupid? Why would you unload your lightning into your Spirit? Are you suicidal!?" he shouted angrily.

Gravis rubbed his head in annoyance. "It's how I cultivate!" he shouted. "You wanted to talk, right? I'll explain everything when we talk, but can we please move away from here?"

Old Man Lightning snorted and then turned to the other disciples. "Stop standing there! Go to the elders and get a new blueprint for the central plaza! We need to rebuild the essential buildings! Also, anyone who touches the tree will be executed!" Old Man Lightning shouted at them.

The disciples quickly nodded and started running around. Initially, they looked like headless chickens just randomly running around, but after a while, Gravis noticed that everyone went to do something different. Some of them were collecting rubble, while others ran to a big black castle.

"Alright, this doesn't concern you," Old Man Lightning said to Gravis. "Follow me. I don't want you to explain everything twice, so I hope you don't mind little lightning bolt joining our conversation."

Gravis furrowed his brows. "Little lightning bolt?" he asked.

Old Man Lightning groaned. "The Sect Master," he said.

Gravis' eyes widened at the disrespectful and casual nickname for the Sect Master. Though, as someone at the Self Stage, Old Man Lightning probably had the right to do that. After all, how many Self Stage cultivators were inside this lower world? Did every Sect have one?

Gravis followed Old Man Lightning as they walked to the big, black castle in the Sect's center. The castle was a slightly bigger version from the one in the Lightning Guild in the Middle-Continent. It wasn't much more imposing. It was just a big black castle.

The guards in front of the castle didn't mind the two passing. If Gravis were alone, they would have surely stopped him, but probably no one dared to stop this old man.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

Gravis noticed several elders at the Sapling Stage shooting past him. They were probably surveying the interior of the Sect to create a new blueprint. After all, they had to relocate a lot of buildings due to the new, gigantic tree in the middle of their Sect. Speaking of…

"What are you planning on doing with the tree?" Gravis asked as they walked.

"Little lightning bolt will speak to it after our talk," Old Man Lightning explained without turning around. "As long as we feed it enough beast corpses, we have an infinite supply of Life Lightning. This will expedite the training of our disciples' bodies. As soon as the storm clouds recover, the disciples can destroy their bodies more thoroughly. Then, they just need to go outside and get healed. This shaves off at least two days of recovery. Of course, such a heal won't be free."

Gravis rubbed his chin. "Can't you also create a healing business? Many people need quick healing, after all, and the tree probably doesn't need much Life Lightning to heal someone."

Old Man Lightning snorted. "Not possible."

Gravis furrowed his brows.

"Why not?" he asked.

Tap!

Old Man Lightning's cane lightly tapped on Gravis' dantian. "You are coming close to the threshold. Unload some of your lightning," he said.

"Oh!" Gravis said. He had completely forgotten about that. He quickly moved around 10% of his lightning into his Spirit.

Old Man Lightning noticed the sudden decrease of lightning inside Gravis without any apparent discharge. He kept looking at Gravis for anything weird happening, but everything seemed normal.

'Apparently, he's telling the truth.'

They climbed some stairs and reached a big door. The old man pushed some lightning into the door, and it opened.

They both entered, and Gravis finally got to meet the Sect Master of the Lightning Sect for the first time.

 

Chapter 243

As soon as Gravis entered, he and Lasar locked eyes. Gravis felt Lasar's powerful lightning, and he was sure that it was even a little bit stronger than natural lightning. Lasar's lightning was maybe at around 55% of Destruction Energy, but of course, Gravis couldn't be completely sure.

Lasar sat on a black, imposing throne. The throne itself was over five meters tall and also very wide. Yet, with Lasar's sizable and powerful body, it seemed just right for him. Lasar was over two meters tall with long silver hair that went down to his waist. In actuality, his hair and Gravis' hair had nearly the same color. Gravis' hair was just a little bit darker, going more towards black. Lasar kept an even look as he gazed into Gravis' eyes.

Meanwhile, Lasar was overwhelmed with one surprise after another, though nothing of that showed on his expression. Gravis stood just a couple of meters before him, yet he felt only a minuscule amount of Energy from him. Yet, there was an unreal amount of lightning inside Gravis' body. Usually, the only lightning that lightning cultivators' exuded was the Lightning Seed. Yet, Gravis had way too much. On top of it, Gravis' lightning felt different. It felt… dangerous.

The next surprising thing was his Spirit. Lasar had felt a lot of Spirits, and Gravis' Spirit felt utterly different. The Spirit's quality was the same as someone at the initial stage of Spirit Forming would have, but its quantity felt multiple times bigger. He guessed that Gravis probably could see far further than someone else at his Realm.

The next surprise was the will that Lasar felt. He hadn't really inspected Gravis much since he was busy with other things. On top of that, his grandfather kept a watch over the boy. Gravis didn't release his Will-Aura, but Lasar still felt the sleeping, powerful will of Gravis. Its practical strength was equal to a slightly above average person at the Sapling Stage.

Normally, that wouldn't be so surprising since Lasar had an above-average will for someone at the Tree-Stage, so there was still a whole level between them. Yet, the theoretical power of Gravis' will was

so powerful that it ignored two levels of suppression. Based on the theoretical power, Gravis' will was probably even stronger than Old Man Lightning's. This felt unreal to Lasar.

Lastly, Gravis' eyes were different from a normal human's. Of course, there were weird eye-colors and even forms, but nothing as ridiculous as a cross-shaped pupil that basically "cut" through the whole eyeball.

All in all, Gravis had so many contradictions to ordinary cultivators that he didn't even seem to exist. He was basically a walking paradox that broke so many laws of how the world worked that it was difficult to believe he existed, even if he stood right in front of Lasar.

Gravis' previous enemies couldn't even feel half of his strangeness since they didn't have much experience. The will of other people was difficult to calculate, and they weren't able to feel the quality and quantity of his lightning. Lasar saw through all these things since he was a lightning cultivator and a very powerful one at that.

The only stronger known lightning cultivator was Old Man Lightning. There was a possibility that there was a priest of the Heaven Sect that also cultivated lightning, but Lasar didn't know of one. If there were, that person would have to battle with Old Man Lightning to determine the most powerful lightning cultivator of the world.

While Lasar felt endless surprise when he looked at Gravis, Gravis only felt some respect for a more powerful person. There was no fear, anxiety, worship, or any of the sort. In his eyes, Lasar was only a person that was currently stronger. The important word being "currently".

Plop.

Without those two noticing, Old Man Lightning sat down at a throne beside Lasar. The throne was only second to Lasar's throne, while the remaining ten thrones were all placed at the bottom. Gravis guessed that the second throne was probably meant for the Vice-Sect Master. Though, if he wanted,

Old Man Lightning could probably sit in any seat he wanted. After all, he was, without a doubt, the most powerful person in the Lightning Sect.

"Stop looking at each other," Old Man Lightning said and then summoned a chair in the middle of the room for Gravis. "Sit down. This will probably take a while."

Gravis shrugged and sat down. Meanwhile, Lasar got another surprise. Someone at the initial stage of Spirit Forming would show fear or worship towards him, yet Gravis didn't seem to be bothered. Of course, Lasar wasn't so weak-willed that the lack of worship would anger him. It only surprised him.

WACK!

Old Man Lightning hit Lasar on the head with his cane. "Stop looking at him like he's a freak. It's impolite!" Old Man Lightning said with authority. "Go introduce yourself!"

Lasar's expression didn't change even though he had been hit on the head by a cane. He was used to it by now, yet he still didn't appreciate that the old man hit him in front of visitors. He felt a little embarrassed by this, but he realized that it really was strange that he hadn't spoken a single word.

"Welcome, Gravis," Lasar spoke with authority as if he hadn't been hit on the head just now. His voice echoed throughout the empty, sizable hall. This was the Elder's Hall. Every important decision regarding the Sect was made here, so it was rather big. With only three people currently being inside the hall, it felt desolate.

"Thank you, Sect Master," Gravis said, standing up from his seat to perform a small, polite bow. Though, he quickly sat down again. It was only a formality, after all.

"Alright, enough with the formalities," Old Man Lightning said with an annoyed tone. "Gravis, I think it's best if you start with when you appeared in our world. I think a normal chronological recounting would answer most of our questions."

Lasar showed his first reaction since Gravis entered, which was an open mouth as he looked at Old Man Lightning. "What do you mean with that?" he asked, incredulously.

Old Man Lightning looked like he remembered something. "Oh, right. I haven't told you yet. Gravis is not from our world. He is from a higher one. I overheard him and that one youngster from the Darkness Sect talking about it. What was his name? Bryan or something."

"Byron," Lasar corrected unconsciously. "And what did you just say? He is not from our world? How is that even possible?"

Gravis sat in his seat with furrowed brows. "Even you know about this, old man?" Gravis asked and then sighed. "Byron knew, you know, everyone in the Heaven Sect knows, now the Sect Master of the Lightning Sect knows. Hell, probably the whole Wind Sect also knows by now since those two guys overheard me speaking with Byron. Is that common knowledge by now?" he asked with annoyance.

Old Man Lightning shrugged. "So what? Power is still everything. What does it matter if you come from here or from a higher world? Does it make a difference?" he asked.

Gravis sighed. "No, it doesn't. It literally changes nothing," Gravis conceded. "If you are more powerful, you don't need to know all of this to kill me, and if you're weaker, this fact won't change anything either. At most, someone can plan for my hidden powers better, but I am confident enough in my adaptability that this fact wouldn't change much in a fight."

Gravis sighed again. "Also, the Heaven Sect is my biggest enemy, and if they already know, what's the point of keeping it secret? I might as well tell you everything."

Old Man Lightning's eyes shone. "The Heaven Sect is your biggest enemy?"

 

Chapter 244"Oh, you didn't know about that one, did you?" Gravis said smugly. Finally, something this old shit didn't know.

Old Man Lightning kept his eyes focused on him. "Please explain."

Gravis leaned back on his chair. He might as well let everything out now. The Heaven Sect had spies everywhere, and they were probably also inside the Lightning Sect. Of course, it was dangerous staying here, but Gravis was sure that it would take some days for the news to reach the Heaven Sect. He still had time to leave.

On top of that, Gravis had a suspicion about this lower Heaven. Ever since his breakthrough into the Spirit Forming Realm, this lower Heaven kept quiet. Gravis was sure that it didn't do that voluntarily. He suspected that the arrival of the highest Heaven, after his breakthrough, changed everything. It probably forced this lower Heaven to follow the rules.

"Anyway," Gravis started explaining with a bored tone. "Due to my background, Heaven hates me, and I hate Heaven. We are basically like water and fire, and only one of us can survive. Since the Heaven Sect is under this shitty lower Heaven, they are my mortal enemies. So yeah, I expect a priest will be visiting the Lightning Sect in the next couple of days, demanding my death. Of course, I'll be gone by then."

The eyes of Lasar and Old Man Lightning opened widely in shock as Gravis referred to Heaven as "shitty lower Heaven". They felt fear and anxiety as they waited for something to happen. Yet, nothing did. Gravis was still there and still as relaxed as before.

Old Man Lightning released a nervous sigh. "You really have guts. No one would dare to refer to Heaven like that."

Gravis snorted. "Fuck this shitty lower Heaven. There are rules that it is supposed to follow. All Heavens follow these rules, yet this petty shit is basically breaking every one of them. Of course, I can't tell you exactly in what sense it's breaking them since that would put you in danger. Heaven doesn't like its workings being exposed."

The breathing of the two people became faster as Gravis continued speaking. To them, it felt like Gravis was poking an impossibly powerful tiger. Even Old Man Lightning was helpless before Heaven, and they were afraid of being pulled into this mess by association.

"How are you so confident in telling us that you are the mortal enemy of a power way stronger than us? Aren't you afraid of us handing you over?" Lasar asked.

Gravis smirked. "Because I have the whole Lightning Sect as a hostage."

Lasar's eyes narrowed as he exuded killing intent. "You are too weak for that."

Gravis continued smirking. "I just have to transmit the workings of Heaven to everyone in the Lightning Sect. What then? I will die, and after that, the Lightning Sect will die with me. As I said, Heaven doesn't like its secrets being exposed."

Lasar took a deep breath. For the first time in a long while, he was feeling genuine fear. If Gravis was telling the truth, he really had the whole Lightning Sect in his hands. Yet, Lasar knew that Gravis wouldn't abuse his power. After all, Gravis was a lightning cultivator, just like them. Something like this would go against lightning's temperament. Only when the Lightning Sect crossed him would he have a reason to unload.

"Relax," Gravis said casually. "I'm not some homicidal maniac. My goal is tempering myself and killing this shitty lower Heaven. As long as you don't do something, on purpose, that would endanger my life without my consent, nothing will happen. After all, I let that old man beat me several times by now," Gravis said while throwing a dirty side-eye to Old Man Lightning.

Old Man Lightning only snorted. "It's alright. You are not part of the Lightning Sect. You are only involved with us, so the Heaven Sect won't take its anger out on us. And if it does," killing intent appeared in Old Man Lightning's eyes, "I won't stand for it!"

Gravis nodded with respect. "That's exactly what I would do. Lightning destroys everything that crosses its bottom line. That is also one of the reasons why I am telling you this. As a fellow lightning cultivator, I know that you won't use this knowledge in some scheme to kill me. The Heaven's secret thing is only a contingency plan."

Old Man Lightning smiled slightly. This was the first time that Gravis saw him smile. "This attitude is exactly why I took a liking to you. You remind me of myself when I was younger," Old Man Lightning said while looking in revery at the ceiling.

"Speaking of," Gravis said like he remembered something, "what happened with Byron? How did I end up in your house?"

Old Man Lightning combed his beard in satisfaction. "That's, obviously, because of me. The Guild Master of the Lightning Guild in the southern Middle-Continent told him," he pointed at Lasar, "about you and your history. You should know how noteworthy it is that someone could fool the Heaven Sect."

Old Man Lightning laughed slightly. "Did you know that the Guild Master knew that you are not a Heavenborn ever since you left the Lightning Guild after your visit?"

Now, it was Gravis' turn to be surprised. "How?" he only asked.

Now, it was Old Man Lightning's turn to smirk. "He is smart. He knows how Heavenborn are, and he noticed that you were completely different. Together with some other clues, he knew that you were no Heavenborn. After that, he informed us. I also heard about it, and I immediately got interested in you. Even though you have accidentally killed your Proxy-Guild Master, he still spoke highly of you."

Gravis thought about this for a while and noticed some of the clues that could have tipped the Guild Master off. "So, how did I end up here?" Gravis asked.

"Unload your lightning," Old Man Lightning said, and Gravis shot up in his chair.

Gravis gritted his teeth since he was frustrated with the fact that he didn't remember his current situation. He was too used to his lightning always regenerating to 90%. Gravis guessed that this conversation would take longer, so he unloaded around 40% of his lightning into his mind. Like this, he wouldn't need to pay attention for around an hour.

Lasar's eyes widened in surprise as Gravis' lightning simply vanished. There was no unloading, yet his lightning had reduced. How was that possible?

Meanwhile, Old Man Lightning nodded. "After I heard that you killed an aspiring elder and multiple stronger disciples from the Wind Sect, I knew that something wasn't right. The Guild Master spoke in detail about your attitude and your relationship with the other Guilds. You, suddenly killing people from the Wind Sect, basically made no sense. So, since I had an interest in you anyway, I went out to search for you. I found you, together with that guy from the Darkness Sect, around a week later. Ever since then, I've watched you in secret."

Gravis was a little surprised about this fact, but it actually made sense. Though there was one issue. "Then why didn't you stop the death of the Sect Master of the Wind Sect?" Gravis asked.

Old Man Lightning had expected this question. "Two reasons. First of all, I don't care about him. His survival doesn't concern me. Second, you wouldn't have learned anything from it. I saw how Bryan-"

"Byron," Lasar interjected.

"Byron had you dancing on his palm. I also wanted to see what would happen when that ring got destroyed. You can only judge someone's true personality when they are backed into a corner. I let Byron live since I don't involve myself in politics. So, you don't have to worry. You can still take your revenge," Old Man Lightning explained.

Gravis remained silent for a while and then released a sigh. "Thank you," he said genuinely. Not only had Old Man Lightning saved his life, but he also taught him a lesson while doing so. Gravis' arrogance of thinking that he knew everything better had been an unknown weakness.

Gravis laughed bitterly. "I always looked down upon my opponents since they always underestimate me, yet, look at me now. I have done the same thing," Gravis said with self-deprecation.

Then, Gravis' eyes narrowed as motivation shone in them. "I won't take others lightly anymore. After all, intelligence is also a form of power."

Old Man Lightning nodded. "Good mindset. Now, tell us about your journey through our world."

Gravis nodded. "I appeared above an active volcano that was about to erupt and fell into the lava…"

Like this, Gravis started telling his story.

Chapter 245

Gravis narrated everything that happened to him after arriving in this lower world. He also told them about his abilities and strength when he had just arrived. All of this was in the past, and everyone important already knew everything important about him, after all.

When he told them that he managed to slay a low-grade Demonic Beast while not having tempered skin, they nodded in praise. "That's at about the level that a genius from the Core-Continent would have," Old Man Lightning said.

Gravis nodded. "I thought so too. I might have had the advantage of a Will-Aura, but I hadn't supplemented my fighting style with Martial Arts. On top of that, they probably know more about their targets than me," Gravis agreed.

Gravis knew that he had been, relatively speaking, pretty strong back then, but it wasn't anywhere as ridiculous as now. He had already thought that there surely were geniuses in this lower world that had been more powerful than him, back then. Of course, Gravis based his judgment on the fact that he and his opponent would have the same Realm.

When Gravis came to the part where he met Joyce, he stopped. "Do you know who this Joyce is? She said that she would help me out for a favor from me. She also said that I would know who she is when I reach the Core-Continent."

Old Man Lightning scratched his beard with furrowed brows. He wasn't really in contact with the outside world much, so he didn't know.

"You say her name is Joyce and that she came from the Core-Continent? You also said that an old man in the Spirit Forming Realm followed her?" Lasar asked.

Gravis nodded.

"I think you've met Joyce Freya. That's her full name. When you met her, she was one of the heirs to the Freya Clan, but she has become the main-heir by now," Lasar explained.

"Oh right, that girl," Old Man Lightning said. "I think I've seen her once."

"Joyce Freya, heir to the Freya Clan," Gravis muttered to himself. Finally, he knew who she was. Her debt had been the first serious one that he had taken on since coming to this lower world. Without her, he might not have had enough money to temper his skin in time, and without that, he wouldn't have been able to join the Lightning Guild this quickly. He had not forgotten that debt, and he wouldn't renege on it.

Yet, there now was an additional question on his mind. "You said Freya Clan? The same Freya as in Freya's Birch?" Gravis pointed to the exit of the hall with his thumb towards the direction of the tree.

Lasar nodded. "The same one. The Freya Clan has the only other Freya's Birch in this world. That's why it's called Freya's Birch."

Gravis furrowed his brows. "So if they were able to cultivate such a powerful tree that can only be grown with Life Lightning probably means that they cultivate Life Lightning, right?" Gravis asked.

Lasar was a little impressed by Gravis' quick wits while Old Man Lightning just harumphed. "Yeah, obviously," he said. "You remember when I said that creating a healing business would be impossible? That's exactly the reason. The Freya clan is very close and filled with Life Lightning cultivators. Since they also cultivate a kind of lightning, our Lightning Sect and their Clan are rather close."

"There are probably more of those clans, right? How powerful are they in comparison to the Sects?" Gravis asked.

"The patriarch or matriarch of a Clan is generally at the Sapling Stage. You could say, the Clans are one stage lower than the Sects," Lasar explained. "Though, they are basically all affiliated with one of

the Elemental Sects."

Gravis sighed in relief. "So, since the Freya Clan is affiliated with the Lightning Sect, paying Joyce back won't go against your goals? After all, I also have an open debt towards the Lightning Sect."

Old Man Lightning and Lasar looked at each other with seriousness. They both started thinking about something, and their serious expressions slowly morphed to uncomfortable grimaces. After that, they broke eye contact and looked with discomfort in different directions.

Gravis, of course, noticed this exchange. His brows furrowed. "So there is a problem," he said.

Lasar sighed. "Yeah, there is. We know what the girl would want from you as repayment when you arrive. Your help would be basically perfect for her. You could call it, a kind of struggle for resources that every major power takes part in. Of course, that includes the Lightning Sect. So, you would be our opponent in this struggle when you help her."

Now, Gravis mimicked the uncomfortable expressions of the other two. This might not make them enemies, but they would become rivals. It surely won't drive a wedge between Gravis and the Lightning Sect, but it wasn't a nice feeling either. After all, Gravis had to repay Joyce and the Lightning Sect.

"I mean, you have lots of elders and even yourself, Sect Master. I think this could become interesting," Gravis said, trying to lift the mood.

Lasar laughed bitterly. "It would be if it weren't for the fact that no one above the Seed Stage is allowed to take part."

Gravis' brows shot up. "Oh…" he said, trailing off. Yeah, that would explain their expressions. Gravis was already nearly unkillable by Seed Stage cultivators.

When he had first entered the Core-Continent, Seed-Stage cultivators were still a threat to him. Then he had gotten the Rakshasa Saber, the Lightning Crescent, the Lightning Bomb, some more body tempering, some more Spirit tempering, and his lightning storage had more than tripled.

Seed Stage cultivators were no enemies anymore. So, if he were to take part in this struggle, the Lightning Sect would suffer, though probably not as much as other powers.

"When is this 'struggle'?" Gravis asked after a while.

"About a year and a half from now," Lasar said. "Try to remain inside the Seed-Stage until it starts. As soon as you enter, you can advance to the Sapling Stage."

Even though Lasar was basically on an opposing side regarding this struggle, he still gave Gravis some helpful information.

Gravis thought about the time and frowned a little. "One and a half years. I'll be 19 by then. This is really a heavy debt," he said.

WACK!

Old Man Lightning's cane hit Gravis on the head. "Argh! Listening to you infuriates me! Do you know how many people would kill their family for your ridiculous cultivation speed!? Yet, you act like advancing two full stages in the Spirit Forming Realm in less than two years is a bother! Cultivation takes longer the higher you go! Get that into your thick head!" Old Man Lightning shouted in frustration.

Gravis rubbed his head. Though, after thinking over the matter for a while, he agreed. How old were all these cultivators in his homeworld? They were probably all thousands of years old, at least. Taking some years for a full major Realm was probably still pretty fast. After all, at some point, the cultivation would slow down.

'Just thinking about longevity already shows the speed of cultivation. A normal human lives to about 80 years of age if nothing major goes wrong. A fully tempered body increases that to like 120 years. Energy Gathering is 200 years, while the initial Stage of the Spirit Forming Realm is 300 years. In relative terms to a mortal human, I would be 17 right now. Yet, when I set the longevity of a Spirit Forming Realm expert to that of a mortal, I could only be considered to be about five years old. That's pretty young.'

"Yeah, you're probably right," Gravis said. "I should probably get used to my cultivation slowing down."

WACK!

Another hit with the cane. "You've really got a talent for making me angry!" Old Man Lightning shouted in fury. "Your cultivation isn't slowing down at all. In actuality, it's even speeding up! Going from the bottom of Body Tempering to Spirit Forming in one year is ridiculously fast, but it's not nearly as ridiculous as taking only two years to advance to the Sapling Stage from the initial stage!"

"it is?" Gravis asked while rubbing his head.

Old Man Lightning spat to the side in disdain as Lasar only smiled bitterly. "Just continue your story!" Old Man Lightning grumbled.

Gravis rolled his eyes but complied. "So, after I've got the Formation Array, I went to hunt my first middle-grade Demonic Beast…"

 

Chapter 246

When Gravis came to the part where he started madly looking for power in the Lightning Tower after Jaimy's assault, Lasar and Old Man Lightning finally understood why Gravis' lightning felt so strange and powerful.

"So, let me get this straight," Old Man Lightning said, interrupting Gravis. "Due to your Elemental Synchronicity, you were able to split the Life Energy from lightning, therefore creating lightning with 100% Destruction Energy?" he asked.

Gravis nodded. "Yes. On top of that, since the lightning didn't have a will, I could move it around however I wanted without completely dying."

Old Man Lightning and Lasar watched Gravis with open mouths. "That's incredible!" Lasar said. Gravis realized the dream that every previous Sect Master of the Lightning Sect had. No one had ever reached pure Destruction Lightning before. To normal cultivators, it just wasn't possible to split the Life Energy and Destruction Energy inside lightning.

It was possible to siphon a small amount of Life Lightning from natural lightning, therefore creating pure Life Lightning, but it wasn't possible the other way around. On top of that, those methods stopped working as soon as too much Life Lightning was siphoned out of Natural Lightning. The highest achievable amount of Destruction Energy was only 60%, and that was incredibly expensive.

Old Man Lightning looked at Lasar with seriousness. "Later," he transmitted to Lasar. Then, Old Man Lightning turned to Gravis again. "And that's when you were influenced by the temperament of lightning and killed your Guild Master?"

Gravis sighed and told them what had happened. He didn't embellish any details and just told them how it happened.

"In the weeks that followed, I tried to find a way to repay my debt. Sadly, there is no way to bring Gorn back, so the next best thing was making the Lightning Sect rise. That would still not be enough, but it's the best I can do," Gravis said.

Old Man Lightning rubbed his beard in thought as Lasar sighed in emotion. This was a tragic accident. Lasar, of course, realized that Gorn was also at fault. After all, he definitely knew about the dangers of feeding someone so much lightning when they were this unstable.

In actuality, Lasar didn't see the matter as critically as Gravis. It was an accident, and accidents happen. Yes, something like this shouldn't go unpunished, but it didn't require something as ridiculous as making the Lightning Sect the most powerful organization. He thought that the Guild Master of the Lightning Guild in the southern Middle-Continent had overreacted.

Yet, would Gravis be okay with this? Definitely not! It was the heaviest blow that he had ever received, and minimizing the issue wouldn't help. Gravis wouldn't accept not paying for this debt, even if Lasar said that it was fine. The only thing he could do was accept that Gravis would repay them.

"So," Old Man Lightning said after a while, showing a smirk. "How exactly did you plan to achieve that?"

"When I have enough power, it won't be an issue," Gravis said.

"And when you have enough strength, then what? How exactly would you do it?" Old Man Lightning asked.

Now, Gravis wasn't sure how to answer. He thought about this for a while, but every answer he came up with, had a flaw. Destroying the leadership of the other Sects? That was not in Gravis' nature, and it would also only be a short-term solution. Watching over the Lightning Sect? That would take too long and would damage Gravis' cultivation path. 'Yeah, how would I do that?' he thought.

Old Man Lightning saw Gravis thinking, and his smirk intensified. "What if I were to tell you that you could do that right now? You can make us into the most powerful Elemental Sect without even increasing your strength. It would also only take a couple of months."

Gravis looked with shock at Old Man Lightning. "How?" he asked.

Old Man Lightning snickered a little. "Come on. Normally, you're so smart, but now you ignore the obvious." Then he pointed at Gravis' dantian. "Your Destruction Lightning. As long as our Sect has access to it, we'll be inherently stronger than all other Sects."

Gravis looked at his dantian, then furrowed his brows. "I mean, I can help some people cultivate Destruction Lightning with mine, but I won't stay in this world for much-"Then, Gravis eyes' widened. "How didn't I think of that!?" he shouted in frustration and elation.

Old Man Lightning laughed. "So you realized it, huh? Took you long enough. As long as you supply Destruction Lightning to our Lightning Tower, we can get some supreme geniuses in the Body Tempering Realm to condense a Destruction Lightning Seed. Then, when those people reach the Magic Gathering Realm, they can use their own Destruction Lightning to help their juniors cultivate theirs. As long as we have a single person with access to Destruction Lightning, the whole Sect will have access to it."

Usually, cultivators wouldn't want to share the results of their hard work with others. After all, they had worked so hard to achieve them, so why should people that didn't work for them benefit from the cultivator's hard work?

Yet, Gravis felt nothing of the sort. The only thing he felt was relief. Finally, he could repay one of the two remaining debts. In Gravis' mind, that didn't fully absolve him of his guilt towards Gorn, but it was the best he could do. There was nothing else that he could do. With that finished, he could put that issue to rest.

Gravis smiled with happiness, something that he rarely did. "Thank you," he said genuinely to Old Man Lightning.

For once, Old Man Lightning also smiled warmly. "We should be the ones thanking you. Not everyone is ready to share the benefits of their suffering with others. If you do that, you have more than repaid us."

"I fully agree," Lasar said, also with a smile.

Lasar was also incredibly happy. The elusive dream that every Sect Master had would finally be realized while he was the current Sect Master. Though, he knew that he hadn't really contributed anything. Yet, as the Sect Master, any rise in the Sect's power filled him with pride.

There were some seconds of silence as the people thought about the future path of the Lightning Sect.

"So," Old Man Lightning said with a smirk, "since all your debts with us have been paid, let me ask you something."

Gravis looked at Old Man Lightning, thinking about what he wanted to ask.

"Gravis," Old Man Lightning began speaking solemnly. "Do you want to join our Lightning Sect?" he asked.

Gravis was shocked. He had not expected that question. It wasn't that it wasn't logical, but that his mind had completely deleted that possibility. He had never thought about rejoining the Lightning Sect. After all, how would that have been possible? He had killed his Guild Master and several disciples of the Lightning Guild. There had been no imaginable way for him to rejoin.

Yet, as he thought about it, everything made sense. He had explained his circumstances to the Guild Master back when he was still inside the Heaven Sect. Then, he repaid the deaths of the disciples with

a lot of gold. After all, killing someone from another organization was different from killing someone from your own. The deaths of those 20 disciples at the tree were not as heavy as Gorn's death since Gravis had been in a different position back then.

Then, Gravis had always thought that he needed to reach the Unity Realm to repay Gorn's death. At that point, he would just leave this world. He, obviously, wouldn't have rejoined the Lightning Sect then. Yet, with this new development, he could finally join the Lightning Sect again! Though reality crashed down on him, transforming his elation into frustration.

"What about the Heaven Sect?" Gravis asked, looking at the ground. Even if Heaven didn't involve itself anymore, the Heaven Sect still blocked him from joining any organization. The threat of the Heaven Sect was just too significant. His enmity with the Heaven Sect would bring the whole Lightning Sect into jeopardy.

WACK!

Old Man Lightning hit Gravis on the head again with his cane. "Stupid! I'm here! If a priest from the Heaven Sect comes, I'll make him flee with his tail between his legs! As for sending two priests? As long as Heaven itself doesn't directly give that order, they won't dare. After all, that would be the biggest loss of face for the Heaven Sect in history. Sending two priests at the Self Stage for only one Sect? The whole world would never forget!" Old Man Lightning said with confidence.

Gravis looked at Old Man Lightning in surprise, which quickly transformed into a sincere, but ugly smile. 'I don't need to fight the Heaven Sect by myself,' Gravis thought. 'With only my power, it would be impossible to join the Lightning Sect, but I have forgotten that there isn't only one person in a Sect. With the old man's help, we can achieve something that isn't possible with only myself. I'm not alone anymore. I don't need to carry the burden by myself. I have a whole Sect behind my back!'

Seeing Gravis' smile, Old Man Lightning nudged Lasar. Lasar then also smiled happily and stood up. "Gravis, do you wish to join my Lightning Sect?" he asked solemnly but with a smirk.

Gravis stood up and bowed to him.

"Yes, Sect Master!" he shouted, trying to keep his emotions in check.

If Gravis had a weaker will, he would be crying right now.

 

Chapter 247

After this happy event, Gravis continued narrating his story. After all, he still wasn't finished with it. He finished talking about the first fight at the tree, and Lasar nodded. He wasn't happy about Gravis killing so many people from the Lightning Guild, but in his mind, everything had been repaid.

"The things that happened in the Proxy-Lightning Guild were what pushed you past the realm of an Ascender's Talent. The tempering of your will due to these circumstances and the following fight made you the best Ascender's Talent. Yet, with the addition of your Destruction Lightning, you broke through that threshold. Before that, you would still have rivals in your Realm, but starting at that point, not anymore," Lasar analyzed.

Gravis nodded. "That's also what I thought."

Gravis then told them about how he managed to barely arrive at the Heaven Sect.

"Where is that ring?" Old Man Lightning asked in interest. Gravis had just told him about how he had used his ring to block an attack from the Spirit Forming attacker.

Gravis revealed a bitter smile. "I might've forgotten to look for it. It's probably still somewhere around the Heaven Sect," he said while scratching the back of his neck.

Old Man Lightning groaned. "You get such an amazing treasure, and you don't even care to pick it up off the ground?"

"I mean, my father said it's just some ring to indicate my status to other people in my homeworld. It doesn't have any other uses. After all, if it had some kind of effect that protected my life, my cultivation journey would take a hard hit if it ever took effect. If I want to reach the peak, I can't carry something that might protect me. Any future tempering would be an issue after such an incident," Gravis explained.

Old Man Lightning sighed. "I think that mindset is too extreme, but what do I know? After all, the people in your homeworld probably know more about this than me. Just continue," he said in defeat.

Gravis then told them about the Heaven Sect and the Heaven's Balance Cultivation Technique.

"That cultivation technique is just ridiculous," Old Man Lightning said in annoyance. "Combining tempering with a Realm increase is basically the ultimate form of cultivation. No wonder new, powerful Heavenborn are sprouting out of the ground like weeds. There are not many, but nearly all of them quickly reach the Spirit Forming Realm. So this technique was the reason for that," Old Man Lightning said in envy.

Lasar and Old Man Lightning didn't ask for such a technique. After all, it was granted to the Heavenborn by Heaven. Heaven would never allow them to touch its things. They didn't have a powerful backer in comparison to Gravis.

Gravis continued narrating and soon arrived at his second encounter with Wendy.

"So that's where your secret was exposed," Lasar said. "The Darkness Sect was overhearing your talk, while the Heaven Sect probably found out in another way. The Wind Sect and we also found out due to the Darkness Sect. That one talk has revealed your origins to the world. After all, it only takes one person to know a secret to no longer make it a secret."

Gravis sighed and nodded. "Yeah, maybe I shouldn't have told her of my origins. I've underestimated the intelligence and resources of the Sects, not thinking that someone way more powerful than me was watching. Well, aside from Heaven," Gravis admitted. By now, he had realized his mistakes.

"It's good that you know," Lasar said. "Continue!"

After a lot of talking, Gravis finally arrived at the incident at the Wind Wall. When he told them that Aion had overwhelmed him, they honestly couldn't think of any way that Gravis could have survived.

"And that's when I knew that my plan had worked! I needed Heaven to strike me with lightning in order to make my plan work!" Gravis said. "The Jade Token absorbed Heaven's lightning and transformed it into Primal Energy, and I could form that Energy into whatever I wanted. So, I willed the Primal Energy to transform into Destruction Energy, which quickly created another Lightning Seed."

Then, Gravis pointed at his head. "And then I moved the Lightning Seed into my Spirit."

Old Man Lightning and Lasar took a deep breath through their teeth. This was absolute madness! They couldn't even imagine the pain something like that would have caused. Old Man Lightning had an incredibly powerful will, yet he doubted that he could have survived something like that. According to their knowledge, that was absolutely impossible!

"That's impossible," Old Man Lightning said evenly. "Even if you managed to get through the pain, instead of getting an affinity with the neutral Magic in the air, you would have been completely taken over by the temperament of lightning. The fact that you are not completely taken over by lightning makes it impossible."

Gravis smiled uncomfortably. "Well, for some reason, my father and the Heaven from my homeworld intervened. Normally, Heaven wouldn't allow my father to intervene like this, yet it even helped him. As unrealistic as it seems, the only possible explanation that I can come up with is that I would have become a danger to the Heaven in my homeworld. Though, that seems incredibly farfetched."

Lasar and Old Man Lightning were unsure what to think. "Well, Body Tempering cultivators would think several of the stuff we can do is impossible. Your homeworld is higher than ours, which means that there are also people with powers beyond our comprehension. Maybe they have a way to make it happen. After all, the proof is before us. If your Spirit weren't adapted to lightning, it would be impossible to unload your lightning without us noticing," Lasar said after a while.

Old Man Lightning nodded, though this still shook him. Cultivators with more power than he could imagine had arrived in his world. Had something like this ever happened before? The fact that someone from a higher world came made the concept of a wider world more real in their minds.

"How many higher worlds are there?" Lasar asked with interest.

Gravis smiled a little. "There is more than one higher world," he said. If he told them that they were in the lowest of four levels, they might despair. Revealing such a vast chasm between them and others would maybe make them believe themselves to be useless. After all, they had both worked for over a hundred years yet hadn't even left the lowest level.

Lasar looked with shock at Gravis. "So the world above ours is not the strongest," he said.

Gravis didn't react. He didn't want to give off any clues. After all, there was a difference in the environments they grew up in. Gravis had been born at the absolute peak, and ever since he was born, he could look down from the peak and see all the other, smaller peaks. He was used to it. Yet, those two had never come into contact with something like this.

What if Lasar and Old Man Lightning saw some random, poor people in the street just teleporting around the place? Gravis was used to this since even the weakest beggars in his home city could teleport. To him, it was nothing special. Yet, Lasar and Old Man Lightning couldn't even fly. Telling them such truths would only damage their cultivation path.

After a while of talking about worlds some more, Gravis continued his story. This time, it was without interruptions. When Gravis arrived at his meeting with Byron, he stopped speaking. After all, Old Man Lightning had watched him for the majority of that period. Though, there was still one open question.

"So, Byron has given me this technique called Rakshasa Saber. It doesn't use an element for its power but still creates an impressive amount of destruction. If he wasn't from another world, how did he get

such a technique?" Gravis asked.

Old Man Lightning waved his hand dismissively. "That's nothing special. We also have several of those. Every couple of centuries, a power created by all the loose cultivators that don't have an element rises. Then, they create their techniques and flourish. Yet, when they become strong enough to battle with our Sects, they get eradicated. Like this, we accumulated a lot of these techniques over the years. You can even buy them in cities."

Gravis sighed. "I was truly naïve. I would only have needed to enter a city to realize this," he lamented.

"Eh," Old Man Lightning said as if it was no big deal. "It's not a problem. The Darkness Sect is the best in subterfuge, subtlety, and deception. On top of that, you were up against the Sect Master himself. Of course, he would be able to fool you. Just look at it as a learning experience."

Gravis smiled slightly. "You're right. This has been a learning experience, and I have learned a lot about myself through it. Maybe it was actually better this way. After all, if I hadn't fallen for the trick, Byron would have just killed me."

"So, what now?" Gravis asked.

 

Chapter 248

"I've already planned everything out," Lasar said, "after all, that's my job."

Lasar then stood up and summoned several things. There were about seven blackish-blue shirts and pants, as well as an emblem. The two things floated over to Gravis, and he retrieved them. Shortly after that, his new clothes appeared around him. On top of his left chest hung the emblem that he had just received. With this, he could officially show that he was part of the Lightning Sect.

"Thank you, Sect Master," Gravis said politely. "How can I acquire a new weapon? Whenever I use my strongest attack, my sabers break."

Lasar looked surprised. "How? Weapons shouldn't break just because you perform an attack. They only break when you strongly hit something that's harder."

"He's speaking the truth," Old Man Lightning interjected. "I've seen the attack. You still remember that Rakshasa Saber he talked about? Instead of infusing it with Energy, he infuses it with Destruction Lightning. After all, his Spirit has an affinity with lightning. This creates a force that a Spirit Weapon isn't made to handle. That's why his weapons break down when he uses that attack. I think he needs at least a high-grade Spirit Weapon to use his strongest attack. Though, that would only work for his current level."

Lasar rubbed his chin. Then, he summoned a saber. "This is a high-grade Spirit Weapon. Take it as a present. After all, you are about to make the Lightning Sect rise."

Gravis didn't stand on ceremony and retrieved it. This saber looked similar to his previous ones but grey in color. Gravis didn't inspect it too much since he would surely destroy it in the future as well.

"Alright," Lasar said. "First of all, I need to negotiate with the Freya's Birch. When it agrees to help us, I'll get some people to modify the Lightning Tower. Currently, it's not made to withstand Destruction

Lightning. On top of that, we'll also need access to Life Lightning. Cultivating Destruction Lightning is probably incredibly dangerous to the body. So, we also need to create a new circuit for Life Lightning."

"Want me to do it?" Old Man Lightning asked casually.

Lasar shook his head. "I'll oversee the changes personally. All in all, it should take around a week." Then, Lasar looked at Old Man Lightning with a smirk. "You should prepare yourself to greet our future guest."

Old Man Lightning furrowed his brows. "Future guest?" he asked, unsure.

"Did you already forget, grandpa?" Lasar asked. "A priest of the Heaven Sect will probably arrive in a couple of days, demanding Gravis' life."

Old Man Lightning snapped his finger. "Right! I totally forgot about that. No worries, I got this. After all, if they actually want to fight, I finally have a chance to get what I've waited for." Old Man Lightning laughed. "I wonder what's more important to them, Gravis' death or seeing me ascend to the Unity Realm?"

This reminded Gravis of something. "By the way, how come you are in the Self Stage, old man? I thought the Tree Stage was the highest that people of this world could reach."

Old Man Lightning had a complicated look. "It's not that the people in this world can't get to the Self Stage, but that they refuse to."

Gravis' brows flew up in surprise. "How come?"

"Let me just show you," Old Man Lightning said.

WHOOOM!

A powerful Will-Aura expanded outward, crashing into the ground and walls. Luckily, the walls were made to withstand such power. Gravis was overwhelmed by the sheer might of Old Man Lightning's Will-Aura. He also saw that it started violently affecting physical matter. Level suppression didn't exist for materials without a will, so this could only mean one thing.

"You also have a Unity Will?" Gravis asked in shock. "Why aren't you in the Unity Realm?"

The Will-Aura vanished again. "That's exactly the thing," Old Man Lightning explained. "A Unity Will is called a Unity Will because it is necessary to reach the Unity Realm. Yet, that only holds true for people stopping at the Tree Stage. A Unity Will is also necessary to reach the Self Stage. Contrary to what you might think, reaching the Unity Realm from the Self Stage is way more difficult than reaching it from the Tree Stage."

Gravis furrowed his brows. "So you need something stronger than a Unity Will to reach the Unity Realm from the Self Stage?" he asked.

Old Man Lightning combed his beard. "Not exactly," he said. "The required will is still considered a Unity Will, but it's a level two Unity Will."

Gravis lifted an eyebrow. "Level two Unity Will? There are levels?"

Lasar and Old Man Lightning both looked at Gravis in surprise. "You didn't know?" Old Man Lightning asked.

Gravis nodded.

Old Man Lightning sighed. "I guess that happens if you're not part of a Sect. Anyway, there's a way to categorize Will-Auras. At every Stage, Will-Auras have three levels. The first level is the initial manifestation of the Will-Aura. The second level is when you manage to compress the Will-Aura to about 50%. The third level is when you have compressed it onto a single person."

Gravis thought about it and realized that this made a lot of sense. A normal Will-Aura and a Unity Will were worlds apart. Not categorizing them further would make this more confusing.

Gravis also released his Will-Aura. He hadn't released it since his battle with Manuel, and he tried to compress it as much as possible. After all, he was interested in how powerful his will had grown by now. Due to his experience of compressing his previous Will-Aura, Gravis knew exactly what he had to do. The Will-Aura started becoming more and more compressed.

Old Man Lightning and Lasar watched with interest. They both felt that Gravis had a Unity Will, but they weren't sure about its exact level.

Gravis' Will-Aura became smaller and smaller until…

"I compressed it down to 40%," Gravis said.

WACK!

A cane hit Gravis on the side of his head, throwing him against the wall. This cane strike had not been weak.

"Argh!" Old Man Lightning shouted in frustration. "You infuriate me! Not only are you shooting through the Realms, but you also already have a Level Two Unity Will! This world really is unfair!"

Of course, Old Man Lightning knew that this had nothing to do with the world. He had heard how much tempering Gravis had gone through, after all. He only wanted to vent his frustration since he grew more and more envious as Gravis revealed one strength after another. Of course, he would never act on that envy. After all, Gravis was part of the Lightning Sect, and the stronger he was, the better.

Gravis stood up and dusted his new clothes off. He wasn't really mad at Old Man Lightning since Gravis could understand his frustration. Gravis would also be frustrated if his Will-Aura had stagnated

for over a hundred years.

Old Man Lightning groaned. "Anyway, back to the topic. Have you ever wondered why no one in the Core-Continent went through the tenth Stage of Magic Gathering, even though we have multiple methods to achieve that?"

Gravis thought about it and realized that this was actually really strange. "Huh, that's actually really strange."

"That's because, as soon as you cultivate to the tenth Stage, you can't reach the Unity Realm without reaching the Self Stage first," Old Man Lightning explained. "It's incredibly difficult to find tempering at my level. I can destroy all Spirit Beasts in this world, and there is only one other Self Stage cultivator, except for the priests of the Heaven Sect."

Old Man Lightning snorted. "Unfortunately, that coward knows he's weaker than me, so he doesn't dare fight me. Of course, there are solutions to this. Some of our ancestors have reached the Unity Realm through the Self Stage in the past. They achieved that by requesting a tempering from a priest of the Heaven Sect. You should know that it's also the job of the priests to grant tempering to worthy people."

Old Man Lightning laughed slightly. "Of course, with the priests being Heavenborn and all, they are pretty damn powerful. Over 90% of our ancestors that requested this tempering died to the priests. That's why no one dares to cultivate to the tenth Stage of Magic Gathering."

Gravis rubbed the side of his head slightly. "Why didn't you request this tempering?"

WACK!

Another hit with the cane, though lighter this time. "You think I didn't?" Old Man Lightning shouted in frustration. "I requested it more times than I can count, but they never accepted! They still hold a

grudge about all the face I made them lose in my youth. That's their way of taking revenge on me!"

Gravis rubbed the side of his head again due to the extra hit with the cane. "And I'm guessing that if you barge in, they will just pile onto you."

Old Man Lightning snorted again. "Of course! They're just waiting for me to do that! Taking on one priest is already a risk, but taking on all four? That's simply suicide! On top of that, if the High Priest gets involved, I wouldn't even know how I died."

"You think a priest attacking us because of you is bad?" Old Man Lightning snorted. "I was fucking ecstatic when I heard that! I would be so incredibly happy when a priest stormed in here, demanding a fight!"

Gravis looked at the ceiling in thought. "Disadvantages can become advantages in certain circumstances," he muttered to himself. He still remembered the issue with his weapon choice after he had reached the Spirit Forming Realm. A saber couldn't bring out the full power of loaded lightning, but that disadvantage had become an advantage with the help of his creativity.

The same had happened again with having a powerful enemy. Normally, having a supremely powerful enemy after your life would make it very hard to join an organization. Yet, this disadvantage had become an advantage.

Lasar had left to negotiate with the tree by now, leaving only Old Man Lightning and Gravis in the hall. After their talk, Old Man Lightning also started walking to the door, and Gravis followed.

WACK!

"And fucking unload your lightning!"

 

Chapter 249

Lasar successfully negotiated with the tree. It agreed to provide Life Lightning to everyone, but at a cost, of course. It took quite some time for Lasar to successfully explain to it why they couldn't give it Life Lightning so easily. The only sources of Life Lightning were Gravis and the Freya Clan. With Gravis being more than full, giving it Life Lightning completely rested on the Freya Clan.

The only thing that they can give it were corpses of beasts. Of course, only with that, the Tree wouldn't have agreed to anything. Lasar also had to promise that, after some amount of healing, the Sect would invite someone from the Freya Clan over to give it Life Lightning.

All in all, the Lightning Sect promised to keep the tree topped-up on its storage of Life Lightning by giving it enough beasts, while someone from the Freya Clan would come in regular intervals. With this, the Lightning Sect finally got an easy way to heal their disciples.

Right after successfully negotiating, the number of missions for hunting beasts skyrocketed. Normally, only villages, towns, and cities requested the hunting of beasts, but these new missions came from the Lightning Sect itself. After all, they were going to put the tree to work, and they needed a lot of beasts for that.

Of course, such hunting missions weren't given to everyone. It was not because so many disciples were too weak, but because they were too strong. There was already an influx of missions, so they might as well use these for tempering.

The strengths of the beasts were described on the mission notice, and it also showed an upper limit of strength and numbers. For example, a mission to kill a low-grade Spirit Beast allowed a maximum of five people at the initial stage of Spirit Forming or only a single person at the Seed Stage. After all, if a single person at the Spirit Forming Realm went out and hunted a bunch of Energy Beasts, they would steal a prime opportunity for tempering from other disciples.

While the disciples of the Lightning Sect went crazy with accepting missions, two elders and Lasar started working on the Lightning Tower. There was no protest about the Lightning Tower being closed down for a week since the storm clouds needed to regenerate anyway. Gravis had absorbed way too much lightning.

Old Man Lightning was also living at his new home again. The Lightning Sect had furnished everything in less than two hours after Gravis had finished building it. They were used to this task since Old Man Lightning regularly destroyed his home.

Meanwhile, Gravis had nothing to do but wait. It would take a week for the Lightning Tower to be modified, and he had nothing else to do. He stood in the middle of the Sect and watched everyone else scrambling around. Some were still busy cleaning up the plaza and rebuilding the essential buildings. Others were running out of the Sect in swathes, hunting for beasts.

"It's weird," Gravis muttered. "I'm not used to having no goal."

Gravis released a deep breath. 'While being part of the Greys, I was, at least, waiting for an enemy to pop up. But now, I'm not even waiting for that. There's just… nothing. Is this going to happen more frequently from now on? Am I just supposed to wait for my Realm to increase?' Gravis thought.

Gravis kind of felt antsy and nervous, even though there was no danger in sight. To him, it felt like every second that he was not tempering himself, he was wasting valuable time. He felt like, by being relaxed, everyone else would overtake him. After all, every hour of him doing nothing would be an hour of tempering for someone else.

"Should I also go hunt some beasts?" He asked himself as he looked at the mission board with his Spirit. There were a lot of open missions for Spirit Beasts, but there was an issue.

'Low-grade Spirit Beasts are too weak already. Middle-grade Spirit Beasts have the strength of around one Sapling Stage cultivator. A Sapling Stage cultivator would work as, at least, some tempering for

me, but a Spirit Beast wouldn't. Humans are smart enough to flee when they see my Lightning Bomb, but beasts? I doubt it. If I could safely kill my enemy with an attack, it wouldn't be considered tempering.'

Gravis had a worried expression on his face. 'I don't even need to think about high-grade Spirit Beasts. A Sect Master is the only person that can hunt them, and I am definitely not strong enough to face a Sect Master yet. Hunting such a beast would be suicide.'

Gravis then looked at another mission board. While the mission board for the hunting missions was brown, this one was black with an ornamental lightning bolt going through it. 'Should I sign up for the war of the Sects? That could work.'

Gravis started reading through the notices on the mission board. Surprisingly, there weren't exactly missions on there, but dates and appointments. As Gravis read through those appointments, he furrowed his brows. 'They have set times and places where they battle? That's weird. I thought this was a war. By the way, why are they even warring?'

Gravis rubbed the side of his head and then looked at Old Man Lightning's house with his Spirit. This time, he could see Old Man Lightning, lounging on a comfy couch beside his fire.

"What is it?" Old Man Lightning sent to Gravis as soon as he felt Gravis' Spirit. After all, inspecting the home of someone else was kind of a breach of privacy. If Gravis looked into the house, he probably wanted something from him. Though, Old Man Lightning sounded way more relaxed than usual. In actuality, he sounded more like a kind grandpa instead of the cursing, always angry old shit that Gravis knew.

"Sorry to disturb you, but I have a question. Why are the Sects warring with each other?" Gravis asked. If the old man was nice, for once, then Gravis could also be nice.

Old Man Lightning looked to be a little surprised by the question. "Well, we don't really war with each other," he said. "We are just fighting to temper ourselves. We hold appointments for the battles and send the same number and level of cultivators. Like that, it would be a fair Life and Death battle. Our Sects are actually all pretty united."

Gravis furrowed his brows. "Then what was up with Byron's scheme?" Gravis asked.

Old Man Lightning sneered. "Yeah, he's an exception. Those greedy darkness cultivators want to swallow everything. They don't care about fairness or others. While we have no issue with the Earth and Water Sect, we do have a personal beef with the Darkness Sect. So, while the whole war is not an actual war, our Lightning and their Darkness Sect are ACTUALLY at war."

Gravis rubbed his chin. "Interesting. So, if there is no war, why is the Wind Sect staying neutral?" Gravis asked.

Old Man Lightning sipped from a small cup of tea. "Because they have their own, special way of tempering. They don't need this war."

Gravis lifted an eyebrow. "Oh? What way?"

Gravis also noticed something else. His lightning was about to reach the threshold again, so he quickly put 10% of it into his Spirit.

Old Man Lightning saw this and smiled. "Finally remembering, huh?" he said in a friendly tone, drinking another mouthful of tea. "As for their way of tempering. You know that the Wind Sect has a lot of beasts, right?"

Gravis nodded.

"It's rather simple," Old Man Lightning said. "The beasts need meat and combat experience while the cultivators need tempering. So, they create duels. The combatants are at roughly the same power, and they fight until one of them dies. If the beast wins, it gets battle experience against a human and their corpse, and if the cultivator wins, they get some tempering. The beast's corpse will then be broken down into valuables, and the remaining beasts eat the meat. They simply don't need the other Sects for tempering."

"That's pretty smart," Gravis said. "With this, they also don't need to rely on others. With high-grade Spirit Beasts, they also have tempering for their Sect Masters. If they have it so easy with tempering, why don't they have anyone at the Self Stage?"

Old Man Lightning laughed a little at Gravis' question. "There is no high-grade Spirit Beast that's interested in a fight. Spirit Beasts can't ascend, and the high-grade is the last level that they can ever reach in their lifetime. There is no possible way forward, so there is also no sense in fighting anymore. As soon as a Spirit Beast reaches the high-grade, they will simply relax and make tons of babies."

"Oh, right," Gravis said. He had forgotten that beasts weren't able to ascend in an Elemental World. They were only in these worlds as fertilizer for humans. Now, if they were in a Natural World, this would be something else. After all, the highest world also required powerful beasts, and many of those came from Natural Worlds. Due to Natural Worlds existing only for raising beasts, there were no humans in there. Like this, those worlds would become a beast factory.

"Yeah, that makes sense, actually," Gravis said.

"While we're talking," Old Man Lightning said. "How come beasts can't ascend? Do you know that?"

Gravis thought about the impact that his answer would have and decided that it couldn't hamper the old man's cultivation path. "It's because Heaven only wants human cultivators. I can't tell you the reason for that since Heaven doesn't want its secrets exposed, but just remember that it only cares about

humans. Heaven created beasts only so they could function as tempering for humans. Therefore, they don't need to ascend."

Old Man Lightning looked intrigued. "Interesting. That would explain everything." With that said, Old Man Lightning trailed off.

"By the way, can I sign up for the war?" Gravis asked.

 

Chapter 250

"Impossible," Old Man Lightning said immediately.

"Why?" Gravis asked.

"Because you are too strong," Old Man Lightning said. "You have already proven that you can take two Sapling Stage cultivators at the same time, which is an issue. Adding someone too powerful to the war would not be accepted by the other Sects. They would just refuse to fight. You would keep, at least, two Sapling Stage cultivators busy, allowing another Sapling Stage cultivator to roam around freely, killing weaker ones."

Gravis frowned. "Then, can't I just take up two seats of Sapling Stage cultivators?"

"No," Old Man Lightning said. "If you won against any two Sapling Stage cultivators, it would be okay. Sadly, you had to take on an elder and the Wind Sect's Ascender's Talent. An elder counts as one and a half, and Manuel also. You would need to take up, at least, three Sapling Stage cultivator spots to join."

Gravis' furrowed his brows. "And I guess that would be an issue since the others aren't forced to fight me. They would probably just send two to stall long enough, while the last one would tear through our Sect. Before I am able to kill those two, the guy will return while our Sects are at a huge disadvantage."

Old Man Lightning nodded in praise. "Exactly. On top of that, they might all focus their attacks on you since you take up three whole spots. You might be powerful, but you won't be able to resist such a combined attack. Basically, you can only temper yourself against Sect Masters, but you're still too weak for that."

Gravis sighed in frustration. "This sucks! I basically have no opportunities to temper myself until I become stronger."

Old Man Lightning laughed a little. "Now, you know how I feel. Frustrating, isn't it?"

"It sure is. If you can think of anything, please tell me, okay? I feel incredibly antsy with nothing to do," Gravis transmitted.

Old Man Lightning snorted. "For once, you're not in a life and death crisis, and you feel antsy already? With that mindset, it's no wonder that your will is already this powerful. Just relax for a while. Increase your Realm. Maybe increase your control over your power. Experiment with your lightning. Just take the downtime to learn more about yourself. Get used to it because this will become more frequent in the future."

Gravis sighed again in frustration. Was there really nothing he could do?

"By the way, negotiations with the Wind Sect are finished," Old Man Lightning said.

Gravis furrowed his brows. "Negotiations?"

"Yes, after all, you've killed a powerful group of their disciples and were somewhat involved in the Sect Master's death. Even though you were under an illusion, you were still treated as an accomplice," Old Man Lightning said.

Gravis had an uncomfortable look on his face. "I guess I do have some responsibility in that matter. How did it go?"

Old Man Lightning drank another cup of tea. "Originally, we would have needed to pay a whole lot of Magic Stones, but after the whole tree thing, the negotiations changed. The Wind Sect gets one thousand free heals for their disciples. Of course, there are some restrictions on it. After all, one person with a Spirit Forming Body takes up way more Life Lightning than someone in the Body Tempering Realm. If we only consider people with a Spirit Forming Body, they would get ten free heals."

"Another debt," Gravis said with a sigh.

"No, that's not a debt," Old Man Lightning said. "After all, the tree is only here, thanks to you. Your debts have been paid with you granting us access to Destruction Lightning, yet we haven't rewarded you for the tree yet. The Freya's Birch is way more valuable than a week of lightning. Just accept it as us paying you back for the tree."

Gravis thought about it and sighed again. "I guess you're right. It does make sense that way."

"Just relax for a while. You've got nothing else to do," Old Man Lightning said with an easygoing voice.

"I guess I should," Gravis agreed. "Though this will take some time."

With that said, Gravis wandered aimlessly around the Sect. Over half of the disciples had already left the Sect to hunt for beasts, while the majority of the others rebuilt the Sect. Of course, rebuilding the Sect also gave Contribution Points. No work was left unrewarded in the Lightning Sect, no matter how unimportant it was.

'Could I use some Contribution Points?' Gravis thought. 'Maybe I could buy some body tempering pills. Oh, right!' Gravis clapped into his hand as he remembered something. 'I could temper my body by myself. Learning more about my body would be a plus, and with the constant feeling of progression and having something to do, I won't be as bored anymore. I guess that's the best thing I could do, even if it isn't the most efficient use of my time.'

'I think the best way to go about it is to mine some Balzar,' Gravis thought. 'I think the Sect needs a lot of Balzar anyway. After all, they need to rebuild a lot of houses. Like this, I can earn Contribution Points too. With enough of them, I might even be able to buy a Peak-Grade Spirit Weapon. A weapon like that wouldn't break even when I reach the Seed-Stage.'

Gravis quickly checked through the mission boards, and sure enough, the Sect needed a lot of Balzar. Gravis also checked how the Balzar should be delivered and noted that it should be delivered in rather big blocks. 3x3x3 meters was the optimal size that gave the biggest reward. They also accepted smaller blocks, but due to the fact that mining such a huge stone was difficult, the reward was slightly higher for a bigger one. After all, a lot of small fragments fell off the Balzar when one mined it.

With everything checked out, Gravis went over to the Balzar mine. A lot of the stuff was still above ground, but Gravis saw that there was also a lot of it in the ground. His Spirit didn't reach far into the ground, but everything he saw was still Balzar.

Gravis readied himself and punched the Balzar.

BANG!

A perfect 3x3x3 meters cube was created, making Gravis smile.

"I guess it's back to punching boulders."